The impact of voter ID laws on turnout and political engagement: An International Study

这项研究旨在发展我们的理解，选民身份的法律如何影响选民投票率和人们对选举的整体和个人层面的完整性的态度。我们目前对这一主题的了解大部分来自美国的文学作品。此外，文献对法律的影响缺乏共识。这项研究将扩大狭隘的文献，并解决其中的辩论。我将通过分析大量的民主国家，随着时间的推移，在国家和个人层面上重复观察，以此为基础。本研究将包含三个核心主题：1。现行法律与投票率之间的关系2.法律变化对投票率和态度的影响4 / 15 3.随着时间的推移，人们的态度是如何被法律塑造的这些将有助于指导和关注一系列相互关联的研究问题，这些问题将使用混合方法，因为大N和案例研究将结合在一起，从而创建一个嵌套的设计。本研究将解决三个主要问题：1。选民身份识别法对投票率和政治参与有什么影响？它总是消极的吗？这种影响在不同的选民群体中有何不同，例如少数民族和年轻人？这种影响如何根据所实施的法律类型而变化？2.新的选民身份法对投票率的影响如何随时间变化？新的法律对投票率有短期还是长期的影响？这怎么取决于法律有多严格？3.制定这些法律的动机是什么？它仅仅是防止欺诈，还是被行为者用来通过塑造选民来巩固他们的权力？该项目具有创新性，因为它试图在所使用的分析技术方面将先进的定量方法应用于一个没有得到应有关注的问题。目前，在联合王国，随着政府开展试点计划，身份识别法问题正在激烈辩论。这个项目很重要，因为它将能够更好地为英国内外的辩论提供信息，并将辩论从使用轶事转向单一案例研究，并结合世界各地的大N研究，可以进行细微差别和比较。为此，将建立一个数据库，记录每个国家或区域（如果是一项权力下放政策）采用的选民身份查验法，并结合一系列选举周期的总投票率，重点是议会选举。此外，还将提供关于投票率、信任度和选举完整性的个人数据。这些数据将取自以前进行的跨部门和小组国际和国家调查，这些调查对选民和选举诚信领域的专家进行抽样调查。这样做是为了确定选民身份查验法与选举参与以及对政府和民主的态度之间是否有任何因果关系。此外，该项目旨在通过了解选民身份法律和政策如何影响选举投票率和政治参与，以重新构建由各种广泛数据提供信息的辩论，从而产生概念影响并解决ESRC的“动荡时代的信任和全球治理”优先事项。已经开始解决我的本科论文中的一些研究问题，我相信这个项目在博士学位的时间范围内是可行的，它将对文献做出原创性贡献。我相信我是合适的人选，因为我有很强的量化能力，我打算在整个硕士和博士课程中建立这种能力，并对人们如何进入投票箱以及法律如何塑造这种进入的问题充满热情。这将首先通过扩大我对当前文献的知识来实现，其次通过完成

This research seeks to develop our understanding of how voter identification laws affect voter turnout and people's attitudes towards electoral integrity both at the aggregate and individual level. Much of what we currently know about this topic comes from literature on the USA. Furthermore, the literature lacks a consensus on the effect that laws have. This research will expand the narrow literature and address the debate within it. I will build on this work by analysing a wide number of democratic countries, with repeated observations over time at both the country and individual level. This research will contain three core themes: 1. The relationship between current laws and turnout 2. The effect that a change in law has on turnout and attitudes 4 / 15 3. How people's attitudes are shaped by laws over-time These will help to guide and focus a series of inter-related research questions, which will use a mixed methods approach since large-N and case studies will be combined thus creating a nested design. The research will address three main questions: 1. What impact do voter identification laws have on turnout and political engagement? Is it always negative? How does this effect vary across different groups of voters, for example ethnic minorities and young people? How does this effect vary depending on the type of law implemented? 2. How does the impact of new voter identification laws on turnout vary over time? Do new laws have a short-term or a long-term impact on turnout? How does this depend on how strict laws are? 3. What are the motivations for the introduction of these laws? Is it merely fraud prevention or is it used by actors to consolidate their power by shaping the electorate? This project is innovative as it seeks to apply advanced quantitative methods, in terms of the analytical techniques used, to an issue which does not enjoy the attention it deserves. Within the United Kingdom at the moment the issue of identification laws is being highly debated as the government carry out pilot schemes. This project matters because it will be able to better inform the debate within and outside the UK and move the debate away from the use of anecdote and towards single case studies combined with large-N studies across the world where nuance and comparison can be made. This will be achieved through creating a database of the voter identification laws used in each country, or region (if it is a devolved policy), combined with the aggregate level of turnout in elections over a series of election cycles, which will focus on parliamentary elections. This will also be supplemented with individual level data on turnout, trust and electoral integrity. This data will be taken from pre-existing cross-sectional and panel international and national surveys, which sample voters and experts in the field of electoral integrity. This will be done in order to establish if there are any causal links between voter identification laws and electoral participation and attitudes towards government and democracy. In addition, this project will aim to have a conceptual impact and address the ESRC priority of 'trust and global governance in a turbulent age' by developing the understanding of how voter identification laws and policies impact election turnout and political engagement with the intention to re-framing the debate which is informed by a diverse and wide range of data. Having already begun to address some of the research questions in my undergraduate dissertation I am confident that this project is feasible within the time frame of a PhD and it will make an original contribution the literature. I believe I am the right person to do this due to my strong quantitative skills, which I intend to build upon throughout the Master's and PhD programmes, and passion for issues of how people access the ballot box and what laws shape this access. This will be achieved by firstly expanding my knowledge of the current literature, secondly by completing t